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October 27-28, 2023
Southern Foodways Symposium ⟶
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October 27-28, 2023
Southern Foodways Symposium ⟶

Oral Histories

The SFA oral history program documents life stories from the American South. Collecting these stories, we honor the people whose labor defines the region. If you would like to contribute to SFA’s oral history collections, please send your ideas for oral history along with your CV or Resume and a portfolio of prior oral history work to info@southernfoodways.org.

< Back to Oral History project: The Saltwater South: Charleston

ORAL HISTORY

Neal Cooksey

Neal Cooksey grew up on James Island in Charleston, South Carolina. As a teenager, he started scalloping in Charleston Harbor and Savannah, Georgia. When he saw his first paycheck, he decided to stick with it. In the mid-1970s, he took off for shrimping the Texas Gulf Coast and Key West, Florida. Along with his crew of Bubba Jameson and Calvin Chavis, Neal shrimps on the Haley Marie & Sons, named after his three children. The boat always returns to the docks of Crosby’s Fish & Shrimp co-owned by his wife, Joanie. Crosby’s sells all the varieties of shrimp Neal and his crew catch: brown, white, pink, and tiger.

Interviewer:
Sara Wood

Photographer:
Sara Wood

Download Transcript

“

"It’s tough to make it, but you still got to go. It’s been a long road." - Neal Cooksey

Other Project Interviews

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William Baldwin

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Rocky Magwood

Rocky Magwood is a Fourth generation fisherman and worked on many of his family's shrimp boats in Mt. Pleasant, SC.

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Nathaniel “Danny” Manigault

Danny Manigault owns and operates Danny's Live Crabs in North Charleston, SC.

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Kimberly Carroll

Kimberly Carroll owned and operated Kimberly's Crabs in Mt. Pleasant, SC before retiring in 2013.

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Julie McClellan

Julie McClellan raises mariculture clams and picks oysters near McClellanville, South Carolina.

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Joanie Cooksey & Ellie Berry – Crosby’s Fish & Shrimp

Sisters Joanie Cooksey and Ellie Berry own and operate Crosby's Fish & Shrimp, a seafood market in Charleston, SC.

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Jamie White

Jamie White is an oysterman and crabber who lives and works on James Island in Charleston, South Carolina.

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Fred Dockery

Fred Dockery is a crabber living and working on James Island in Charleston, SC.

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David Thomas

David Thomas is a commercial fisherman who sells his catch at Crosby's Fish & Shrimp in Charleston, SC.

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Anuruck “Lucky” Suttiprasert

Anuruck "Lucky" Suttiprasert runs a shrimp boat. He docks and sells at Crosby's Fish & Shrimp in Charleston, SC.

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Andrew Magwood

Andrew Magwood is a retired third generation fisherman. He shrimped with his brother, Junior Magwood, who owned C.A.…

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